The viewpoint of the Book: the wise man's search for happiness
under the sun, and his dicovery

The Book of Ecclesiastes is, up to a certain point, the
converse of the Book of Proverbs. (see note to Proverbs) It is
the experience of a man who -- retaining wisdom, that he may judge
of all -- makes trial of everything under the sun that could be
supposed capable of rendering men happy, through the enjoyment of
everything that human capacity can entertain as a means of
joy. The effect of this trial was the discovery that all is vanity
and vexation of spirit; that every effort to be happy in
possessing the earth, in whatever way it may be, ends in
nothing. There is a cankerworm at the root. The greater the
capacity of enjoyment, the deeper and wider is the experience of
disappointment and vexation of spirit. Pleasure does not satisfy,
and even the idea of securing happiness in this world by an
unusual degree of righteousness, cannot be realised. Evil is
there, and the government of God in such a world as this, is not
in exercise to secure happiness to man here below -- a happiness
drawn from the things below and resting on their stability; though
as a general rule it protects those who walk with God: "Who
is he that shall harm you, if ye be followers of that which is
good?"* There is no allusion to the truth that we are dead in
sins and offences. It is the result in the mind of the writer of
the experience which he has gone through, and which he sets before
us. As to the things around us, there is nothing better than to
enjoy the things which God has given us; and finally, the fear of
Jehovah is the whole of man, as the rule of his walk on earth. His
own capacities do not make him happy nor the gratifying of his own
will, even when he has everything at command. "For what can
the man do that cometh after the king?" Man fails to secure
joy; and permanent joy is not to be found for man. Consequently,
if there be any joy, it is with the sense that it cannot be
retained.

* Peter's epistles, after laying the foundation of redemption
and being born again, are occupied with the degree in which what
was immediate (in promise) among the Jews is applicable now. The
first epistle, its application to saints; the second, to the world
and the wicked here below: hence he goes on to the new heavens and
the new earth.

Wisdom and folly in this world and their end

The moral of this book goes even farther than that of the
Proverbs -- on one side at least; for we must remember that it is
this world that is in question (under the sun). Wisdom
avails no more than folly. The difference between them is as great
as that between light and darkness. But one event happens to all
men, and much reflection only makes us hate life. The heart becomes
weary of research, and after all one dies like another. The world
is ruined as a system, and death cuts the thread of thoughts and
projects, and annihilates all connection between the most skilful
workman and the fruit of his labours. What profit has been to him?
There is a time for all things, and man must do each in its season,
and enjoy that which God gives on his way. But God is the same in
all His works, that men should fear before Him. He knows that God
will judge the righteous and the wicked; but, as far as man's
knowledge extends, he dies as the beast dies, and who can tell what
becomes of him afterwards? There is no question here of the
revelation of the world to come, but only of the conclusions drawn
from experience of what takes place in this world. The knowledge of
God teaches that there is a judgment; to man all is darkness beyond
the present life.

Injustice and unredressed wrongs

Chapter 4 expresses the deep sorrow caused by the crying
injustice of a sinful world, the unredressed wrongs which compose
the history of our race, and which, in fact, make the history of
man insupportable to one who has a sense of natural justice, and
creates the desire to put an end to it. Labour and sloth alike
bring their quota of distress. Nevertheless, in the midst of this
quicksand in which there is no standing, we see the thought of God
arise, giving a firm foundation to heart and mind.

God over all in government and judgment

This is in the beginning of chapter 5. He demands respect from
man. The folly of the heart is indeed folly in His presence. From
thence onward we find that that which takes away the vain hope of
earthly happiness gives a more true joy to the heart that becomes
wise, and therefore joyful, in separating itself from the
world. There is therefore the grace also of patience. The
self-sufficient effort to be righteous only ends in shame; to be
active in evil ends in death. Finally, to strive after wisdom by
the knowledge of things below is labour in vain. He has found two
things: first, with respect to woman, judged by the experience of
the world, he has found none good; amongst men, one in a thousand;
and, in a word, that God made man upright, but he has sought out
many inventions apart from God.

God must be honoured, and the king also, to whom God has given
authority. We see too in chapters 9 and 10, how little everything
here meets the apparent capacity of man; and, even when this
capacity is real, how little it is esteemed. Nevertheless the
wisdom of the upright, and the folly of the fool, have each its
own consequences, and, after all, God judges. To sum up the whole,
God must be remembered, and that before weakness and old age
overtake us. For the manifest conclusion of all that has been said
is "Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole
of man."

Submission and obedience to God the principle of all true wisdom

The chief subject, then, of this Book is the folly of all man's
efforts in seeking happiness here below, and that the wisdom which
judges all this only renders man still more unhappy. And then all
this experience, on the part of one who possessed the highest
capacity, is put in contrast with the simple principle of all true
wisdom -- submission and obedience to God, who knows all things,
and who governs all things, because "God shall bring every
work into judgment."

The only rule of life

If we remember that this Book gives us the experience of man,
and the reasonings of man, on all that happens under the
sun, there is no difficulty in those passages that have the
semblance of infidelity. The experience of man is necessarily
infidel. He confesses his ignorance; for beyond that which is
seen, experience can know nothing. But the solution of all moral
problems is above and beyond that which is seen. The Book of
Ecclesiastes makes this manifest. The only rule of life then is to
fear the God who disposes of our life, who judges every action all
the days of the life of our vanity. There is no question, in this
book, of grace or of redemption, but only of the experience of
this present life, and of that which God has said with respect to
it -- namely, His law, His commandments, and the consequent
judgment -- that which is decreed to man.

A Jew under the law might say these things, after having had
the experience of all that God could give man to favour him in
this position, and in view of the judgment of God that is
connected with it.

The difference between Proverbs and Ecclesiastes

In Proverbs we have practical moral guidance through the world;
in Ecclesiastes the result of all efforts of man's will to find
happiness, with all means at his disposal. But in the whole
inquiry in Ecclesiastes there is no covenant relationship, no
revelation. It is man with his natural faculties, and such as he
is, conscious indeed he has to say to God, but seeking by his own
thoughts where happiness is to be found. Only that conscience has
its part in the matter, and the fear of God is owned at the
end. It is God owned indeed, but man in the world with full
experience of all in it.